Monday, February 14, 2005

Of healthy sundowns & spicy nights ...

I’m on the verge of making a spoof of my own lifestyle. Correction: ‘our’ MBA lifestyle. Tonight, it’s going to be the sixth eat-out in a span of ten days, and there’s no sign of letting down.

Life has become real funny of late. We eat-out and party for all sorts of vague reasons humanly possible. The first eat-out ten days back was ‘just like that’; second, an eat-out after a second-show movie (Page 3); third, another ‘for the heck of it’ eat out; fourth, a farewell party to our outgoing seniors; fifth, a farewell to some close seniors. Since people are never equal, and all Indians aren’t brothers and sisters, and some friends are closer than others, the fifth party stands justified. Tonight, we got a treat for a marketing fair that we conducted a month back.

A year back, when someone told me that MBA life is fun, frolic and round the clock 360 degree action, I didn’t realize that the ‘all round’ 360 degree action encompasses these eat outs. Gone are those days of limited eating, limited working and limited fun. All things seem to be King-size, and funny at that. Picture this: Eat outs go on one side, work outs happen on the other side, and a Body Purging Program (BPP) starts somewhere in between. An enthusiastic guy I am, I enrolled for the BPP, little realizing that I’m a normal down-to-earth human with petty longings. The full BPP runs for 7 days with different diet every day to ‘purge’ the body of unwanted fats and harmful fluids. The first day was a strict fruit-only menu, and I barely survived the breakfast and lunch before things overtook me. We had the fifth eat-out scheduled that night, and the thought of those Red chicken cauliflowers, Roasted peanuts and Chocolate delights was too good to resist. Add to that the stupid back-of-the-mind genie that kept bugging me that I’m arguably fit and “don’t really need a BPP” types, I chucked the program and joined the party that night in no time.

I started cursing myself for pulling out, but things look funny now. Out of the 30 initial BPP enrolments, only 3 survived the end of 2nd day, and there are five more days left. I’d probably give a toast to anyone who makes it to the last day simply coz that’s like an out-of-world unreachable destination to me, like making me run a 43 Km marathon. Speaking about marathon reminds of our visits to the Gym. Thanks to the other able-bodied and never-let-go soul named Chandoo, both of us made it to the Gym almost regularly in the past two weeks. I really felt an energy ring around me after the gym program every day. The 30 minutes workout was worth every bit. But it appears that what we are doing is peanuts compared to what’s ‘supposed to be done’ in a gym. I read yesterday that a 20 minute of 7 Kmph tread-milling is the bare minimum and that’s when things really start to happen. I’ve barely breached the 12 minute 1.5 Km 8 Kmph margins, but things are really promising. From a 500m 3 minute run two weeks back, the current levels are something. We’ve definitely reached somewhere.

The eat outs work out exactly counter to these workouts, and that’s why life is funny. Eat out and work out side by side. Sounds like a perfect combo - only that the eat outs in a business life are bound to continue, but God knows what will happen to the work outs. For now though, treadmill, here I come…